


lotripping across the universe, part two.

by marginalia



Category: The Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Community: lotrips100, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-08-07
Updated: 2003-08-07
Packaged: 2018-10-10 22:14:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 3,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10448706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marginalia/pseuds/marginalia
Summary: 32 more lotrips drabbles & variations in chronological order. All standalones. Anything multipart or crossover is uploaded as its own thing. Written 2003-2004. One may hope they get better as you go along.





	1. Scars - Billy/Orlando

Some nights Billy traces the scars on Orlando's back, watches him ripple slowly, relaxing into this touch, this life. On those nights, once Orlando is warm and open, Billy fucks him hard, shattering the boundaries, yet proving to Orlando that he will not break again.

Other nights Orlando cradles Billy, touches him slowly and reverently, draws Billy's love to the surface of his skin, draws him out of himself with careful hands and tongue. Orlando guards against the darkness of dreams with a tangle of slender limbs because he knows well that some scars can be more difficult to reach.


	2. Cracker Jack - Dom/Elijah

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set on a weekend in Seattle during the _Try Seventeen_ shoot. [Cracker Jack](http://www.crackerjack.com/home.htm), [the novelty store](http://www.mcphee.com), [the record store](http://www.sonicboomrecords.com).

They've spent hours in the store, setting up matches between boxing nuns and leaving a box of bendys in obscene yet arguably natural positions. Elijah calls from the doorway, "Meet you at that record store on the corner". Dom nods, distracted.

Halfway down the block, Elijah hears footsteps pounding behind him. Dom catches him, grabs for his hand, and slips a plastic ring on his finger. "What's this? It looks like it came from a Cracker Jack box."

"It's a compass," Dom says. "So you don't get lost. Race you to the corner." Dom runs, and the moment is gone.


	3. The Taste of You - Billy/Cate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts of smut, kilt, and crumpled.

unzip me, she says, and turns, and he tugs the zipper down slowly, traces her spine through her slip. realizes there's nothing underneath.

a little wanton? he asks.

maybe, she says, but i didn't think you'd mind.

i don't, he says, tugs the slip over her head, tosses it on top of the crumpled dress, and she turns to kiss him and

wait, he says. hands her the kilt. put it on, he says, sitting on the bed to watch milk white hips and thighs disappear behind dark wool. now, here, he says and she smiles and straddles and undresses him and then it's stolen kisses, hurried. with teeth always careful not to leave a mark.

she's soft breasts and rough fabric and cool eyes and heated skin above him, rocking, and he's shuddering, shaking, breath catching and hands catching sweat-slick skin and the kilt pooled around them.

and. he understands, now, the appeal.

later, when he turns to go, she asks, stay for a drink?

no, he says. i want to keep the taste of you.


	4. New Zealand Summer - Fellowship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 movie scene challenge. _In the Mood for Love_.

Orlando took a seat in the next booth. Elijah glanced up from his cigarette, set it on the edge of the ashtray, and beckoned him over.

"Billy's working late," Orlando apologized, sliding into the booth.

"So is Dominic." Orlando nodded.

"What would he have?" Elijah asked. Orlando pointed out the selection.

"And you should . . ."

"Order for you. I know."

The waitress came and went, refilling water, leaving them to eat in silence. Elijah tapped his cigarette and exhaled slowly. Orlando traced the pattern on the table.

Finally. "How do you think it started?" Orlando wondered.

Elijah shrugged. "Maybe like this."


	5. Some Like It Dom - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 movie scene challenge. _Some Like It Hot_.

It was their only option, Billy kept telling himself as they hurried to catch the Florida train. Chicago was going to be the death of him otherwise, though whether death would come from the Mafia or one of Dom's spurned women it was hard to say. He fell behind, lugging the bass fiddle, and trying not to stare at Dom's legs.

"It's no use," Dom complained, stumbling in the heels. "We'll never get away with it, Bills."

"It was your idea in the first place," Billy pointed out, then paused to straighten his skirt. "And remember, the name is Wilhelmina."


	6. Red Herring – Fellowship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the Lotrips100 movies scene challenge. _Clue_.

The dinner party, even before acquiring a body count, had been a disaster. Secrets were exposed; guests eyed each other with growing suspicion.

When Davies explained the con and proposed they abandon the bodies and leave quietly, Mr. Astin whipped out a pistol, beating Davies to the shot.

"Are you a cop?" Mrs. Wood asked, as the police poured in the front door.

"No. FBI. And if you want to know who killed Mr. Jackson," Mr. Astin declared, "I did. In the hall. With the revolver. Take 'em away, Chief. I'm going to go home and sleep with my wife."


	7. Sword - Viggo/Sean B

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts of sword & smut

At first Sean hears only the voice, hushed and deep, gravel around the edge of his dreaming. It's distinctly Viggo, the rough yet quiet tones that have melted away as he moves further into Aragorn.

Other times, dreaming oceans away, he's fighting, the clash ringing in his ears. He never remembers his opponent, dark and looming, only looking down and seeing Viggo's sword in his hand. He caresses the hilt with his thumb, balances the weight, and wonders what it means. Wonders who to ask.

When he awakens, cock hard beneath his strong fingers and twisting wrist, he stops wondering.


	8. Selkie - Billy/Cate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 fairy tale/myth challenge

When he kisses her, she tastes of salt, and he tells himself it's the sea, not her tears. He touches her slowly, reverently; moves in her with care, but the heat from his body and the cottage fire do little to chase the clammy chill from her skin. He sings to her softly, wraps her in blankets and rocks her, willing her to come to him across the distance of her storm tossed eyes.

At evening on the ninth day he takes the key from around his neck and unlocks the chest.

She slips into her skin and is gone.


	9. Twist - Billy/Cate

there's only one thing cate won't do for billy. only one, in their stolen time in sterile rooms. only one, and it twists at him at times, twists when he stands at the foot of the bed, directing her decadent, one hand drumming fingers plunging, the other scrabbling at the headboard

_and it flashes._

twists when she's ridingrocking above him and his tongue curls round her fingers

_and tastes metal._

twists and coils but he knows what she'll say. that it reminds her who she is. that she'll lose herself in him without it.

he spirals down, entwined in her.


	10. Volatile - Elijah/Sean A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 quotation challenge. One quote and one dialogue snippet from _The English Patient_.

sean's already tidying the room when elijah awakes, and for a moment elijah considers feigning sleep until sean leaves. he has to leave, elijah reasons, he can't spend the rest of his life fussing around a hotel room, cleaning up everything except the words that are hanging in the air.

elijah had taken sean rough and fierce, spoken words sharp and cutting. when they collapsed in separate beds, sean's words came so soft elijah wished he had imagined them. _do you think you are the only one who feels anything?_

but now it's morning, and elijah drags himself from the bed, blinks against the words drifting through the sunlight and sean's back, rigid. elijah fights the urge to go to him, slip his arms around him, interlaced fingers on his warm sam-belly. instead he makes for the shower, lets the water pound and cleanse, transitory heat.

when he finally leaves the safety of the bathroom, sean is gone. elijah reaches for his cell phone, placed neatly on his folded jeans, and dials.

sean answers without checking the id. elijah's voice is ice. _i just wanted you to know i'm not missing you yet._

sean hangs up. whispers. _you will._


	11. Confession - Elijah/Sean A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 dialogue challenge. Dialogue from Pam Houston, "The Best Girlfriend You Never Had", from Waltzing the Cat.

It's late, and they're waiting. Sean forgets sometimes for what or who. The sounds of the city struggle to atone for the lack of conversation as Elijah stands beside him at a calculated distance.

"I want contact," Elijah finally says, an answer to the question he had not been asked. "I want someone's warm breath on my face." His gaze remains steady. He leans forward, arms behind, hands cupped around the railing, testing weight and pull.

Sean forces shadows from his face, and leans against the rail, hands in pockets.

Touch would be benediction. But he should be the penitent.


	12. Late - Elijah/Sean A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For 15minuteficlets

sean allows himself to wonder for a moment, if he kissed dom now if he would taste elijah, if the coffee and cigarettes lingered along his jaw, under his ear.

he permits it for just a moment, then folds it in a box and hides it away, rearranging his face into a placid smile before dom turns to him. "sorry again about being late, man, elijah's worse than a child to get out of the house on time." the eyes falter but the smile stays in place as the diplomat goes on autopilot to assure it was not an inconvenience.


	13. No More Yielding Than A Dream - Elijah/Sean A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slash100 lyric & Challenge100 sacrifice challenges.

He observes everything and plans for every eventuality. He is never taken unaware.

Almost never.

But great things happen slowly, a smile, an arm thrown about his shoulder, Elijah burrowing warm and sleepy into his lap. When their lips touch it's a dream, soft and ephemeral. Unreal, Sean thinks, Elijah smiling into his shoulder. Elijah's curled into him and they just fit, gone from fancy to longing almost before Sean noticed.

And now he's torn, forced to choose who will fall victim, their happiness sacrificed. Sean flexes his fingers, cool on the steering wheel, and falls from daydream to nightmare.


	14. In medias res - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For 15minuteficlets

the thing billy likes best about dom is that he's unfinished. everything about his face, taken individually, is a little off, like the sculptor suffered a fatal heart attack mid-creation and never had the chance to nudge details properly into place.

the thing dom likes best about billy is that he leaves things unfinished. he drifts off mid-sentence, unable to settle on one direction for his thoughts.

the thing they like best about each other is how the unfinished bits fit together. how billy leaves off mid-reflection, traces dom's jaw with his fingertips and feels dom's smile, answer and conclusion.


	15. The Dreams - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Everywhere there are people, demanding people, drifting people, dispirited people, blood and bone and dreams.

The dreams surround him, talking, humming, screaming even when the blood and the bones are silent. The dreams demand to be heard. They are fragile. They spin patterns around him. The weight of the dreams and the voices threatens to crush him. He wonders why no one else is listening.

Dom's hand, long fingers splayed across Billy's shoulder, warm through his shirt. A dream shatters. Together they bend. They break. They gather the pieces. They touch and burn, skin, blood, bones.

The dreams spin on.


	16. Illusory - Fellowship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Dom administers the dream poll in Feet. "Girls," Elijah answers, still rubbing his eyes.

"Was that a dream or a nightmare?" Dom asks. Billy laughs and Elijah shoots them both a dirty look. "Next! Billy?"

Billy considers. "I think I'm keeping this one for myself," he says finally, but smiles sleepily at Dom. For a moment, Dom's eyes soften, then he turns towards Sean's reflection.

"I don't remember," Sean snaps, before Dom can ask. Through the mirror he sees a question pass across Dom's face. Dom's tongue flicks out, but he does not press further. Sean swallows and looks away.


	17. All the Way Home - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drabble-and-a-half for 15minuteficlets.

billy loses everything. his copy of _fellowship_ tumbled into a hotel swimming pool. new clothes margaret picked out disappeared into the depths of his closet, their memory forgotten in the comfort of soft and worn, but familiar weaves. he left new zealand for the last time without even a pair of hobbit feet to his name.

it's cold in glasgow, and billy sits at the kitchen table, taking notes on script pages and drinking tea. he's pulled out of the story by a knock at the door. he opens it, and is only half surprised to see dominic. another thing he left behind.

dominic reveals pippin's scarf from behind his back, loops it around billy's neck, and tugs him close. dominic's mouth tastes like the bubble gum he chewed on the descent and billy shivers as the crisp air rushes into the room.

they step in and close the door.


	18. Party Monster - Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

He can't remember the last time he cooked a proper meal or talked to Billy or fucked someone who stayed long enough to introduce themselves over instant coffee the next morning. He knows he could if he just thought about it a while, but thinking is dangerous.

The world is a rock in his throat, a weight on his chest, and the harder it presses the wider he smiles. Maybe if he smiles big enough it will reach his eyes. It will push the weight away. He'll spin instead of the earth, just for a change.

Cameras flash.

Dom smiles.


	19. Harmony - Billy/Dom

sometimes they would sing.

they'd have a day free, and one or the other would suggest it, or neither would and they'd just know.

and they'd go.

billy would drive, sitting low, right hand lazy on the wheel, while dom curled up, knees tucked under his chin.

they'd joke, then visit, then slip into silence. then, and only sometimes, just over the hum of the motor and the road, eyes on the horizon, they'd sing. dom first, low and rich, then billy would join, high harmony. dom would falter, just for a moment, then focus. then blend.

and they'd sing.


	20. Turn and Run - Andy/Sean A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 new canon challenge.

Sean recoils from Andy's touch, despises his weight as he hits the ground. He flushes when he feels Andy's solid strength behind him, and hopes it can be blamed on Sam's ruddy cheeks.

When Andy tears the wig off, it's a release. Sean springs as if from a trap and resists turning to see the reaction. Humor or pity, either would burn low through denial.

Hot tears spring up at the corners of his eyes. He wipes them away quickly and smiles sheepishly at the costumer. "It hurts, yeah?" she asks him, and he shrugs and drops into the chair.


	21. Belonging - Dom/Orlando

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

He hasn't slept in days, and everything's noise and light around him. He's given up on trying to process it, given up on the moment, given up. When the girls yell his name he pastes on the smile and gives them a show, because at least they know who the fuck he is, thank you very much.

He spies Orlando, surrounded by hands and pens, and sneaks up behind him, not a challenge in this din. He snakes his arm around Orlando's waist, buries his face in his shoulder, breathes deeply of soap, aftershave, Orlando.

Orlando turns and Dominic belongs.


	22. Misplaced - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 15minuteficlet

He was lost again. Lost in the fake Fangorn Forest. He could have sworn - turn left at that one tree and it's a few steps to the door and then the loo and the canteen. But instead he was stuck in that American sitcom where they couldn't find their car.

He sat on an oversized root and considered. The art department would have his head if he damaged anything, but they'd have to find him first. It might be worth it. The tree was surprisingly comfortable and he settled in, head in his hands.

He was overtired lately, and he knew that was half the problem. The heat from the lights crackled down through the trees and made him all the drowsier. His eyes drifted closed, and long before he thought to wonder if anyone would come looking for him, Dom rustled past, then doubled back. "Been wondering where you’d got to." He offered his hand and pulled Billy to his feet, then pressed a quick kiss to his temple. "C'mon Pip. Only you could get lost on set." Billy made a non-committal sound. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks," said Billy. "I'll be sure to tell them first."


	23. Waiting for Epiphany - Billy/Dom

Billy gulps down a glass of eggnog, thick and cloying on his tongue. "You might want to slow down," Elijah appears, slipping under his arm. "There's no alcohol in that." His voice softens. "How you doing, Billy?" Billy shrugs, and Elijah turns him, embraces him so fully that Billy thinks he can lean into him forever, melt into him warm and strong, and he thanks whatever made Elijah able to understand things about people that they do not know themselves.

He pulls away and sees Dom across the room. He imagines a shadow drifting across Dom's face. He looks away.


	24. Consonance - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

The sounds fall on Billy's ears, and his nerves jangle. Tension strings him out, foot tapping, stomach twisting, waiting for the end.

Sean had told him once of an opera that opened with the start of a chord, a chord which did not properly resolve until the very end. Then Billy thought it a rather cruel trick, but now? Even more so.

His world trembles in discord until the door opens and notes tumble into place. "No words," Dom says, voice resonant, touch light. Billy nods. It interferes sometimes, the natural rhythm of their banter. Tonight they'll seek quiet harmony.


	25. The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet - Billy/Cate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100. Anger, possibly.

Her mouth is a thin line. Her hands curl into tight fists, and her nails cut half moons in her palms. At least she's feeling something. At least she's not beating his words out of the air. Her nostrils flare, and she turns away. Something twists inside her as she leaves, but he will not have satisfaction.

The air is thick around him, clouded with words he meant but did not mean. He sinks into a chair, pressed down by things perhaps not worth fighting for. Pressing fingertips to temples, he attempts the complicated mathematics of subtracting two small words.


	26. Nailed - Dom/Elijah

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100, Oscars

The ceremony seems eternal and the auditorium sings with nervous energy. The hobbits are in a row, legs tapping in a rhythm. With each win they smile, cheer, remember to breathe, and settle back into the jitters. Dominic spins his rings one by one, then pushes them down snug.

Elijah's fingers scuttle up his torso, drumming, but he remembers the cameras and catches himself before the nails reach his teeth. He slams his hand down on his thigh and flexes the fingers.

Dominic, eyes straight ahead, slides his hand across the distance and lays it briefly on Elijah's.

Elijah breathes.


	27. Magnetic - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 outside point of view challenge.

He watches them in interviews and imagines peeling back the levels from broadcast to monitor, from the soundstage to the intricacies of their own world. His press is compiled from a series of masks, and he suspected that was true of everyone. He wants to believe it of them.

They operate as a unit, self-contained and perfectly balanced, one spinning on the axis of the other. He watches and waits, then reaches out deliberately, applies pressure and knocks one away.

Destruction looked deceptively simple, and he steps in, satisfied, only to be foiled by the invisible, the mystery of polarity.


	28. Clouded - Ian/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Sometimes Ian's eyes cloud over, like those of the woman who lived down the street from Dominic when he was small, the woman who had the Gift. Dominic had thought her old then, the way you think everyone is old when you are young. Now he's not so sure.

Ian's sheltered by mist and dreaming, and Dominic wants to ask him what he sees. He had never asked her, but that was long ago. Now Ian blinks the fog from his eyes and smiles a yes. When they touch it crinkles soft like paper, and Ian's mouth tastes of woodsmoke.


	29. The Curtain Goes Up - Billy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100, Life without _Rings_ challenge.

He had done his time, gotten his trade. Life trudged on according to plan, years of work, a trip to the States with his girlfriend. He tiptoed out onto the limb, auditioning before they left, and when Margaret opened the letter from the Academy, he held his breath across the ocean.

The first day, his stomach twisted as he ran the lines in his head. He heard nothing as his classmates spoke, and the world compressed to a single point as he stepped into the center of the circle, introducing himself through the vertigo and the thrill of the new.


	30. Moonlighting - Ian/Dom

Dominic is wicked. Wicked eyes, wicked tongue. Dominic is always looking for something new to get away with. Someone new.

The crew knows this. The cast knows this. Ian knows, or at least thinks he does. Ian gets up for a piss at 3am and sees Dominic, half dressed on the sofa, curled in on himself, burrowed into the back. Without missing a beat Ian says, “You know where the bedroom is. If you smother yourself on that monstrosity, it’s not my doing.” Dominic smirks in the shadows. Forgets he’s meant to be asleep.

Dominic’s not the only one looking.


	31. Sheen - Dom/Miranda

There's a light sheen of sweat on Miranda's skin, and it suddenly makes sense to Dom, all the references to ladies glowing in the plays from America's Deep South.

He'd like to lick her _there_ , that spot at the base of her throat and see if she tastes of salt or stardust. He'd get away with it. Dom's never been known as a bloke who could keep his tongue in his mouth. She'd slap him for show and follow it with a laugh, and her laugh is a glorious thing, but taste of her will be sweeter for the waiting.


	32. Should Be - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Drabblesmith

It should be hot here, so many people pressing in with wanting, lights flashing bright and blinding, but Billy is holding back, standing in the chill of his own shadow as they look beyond him and scream.

He should be used to it, but he's fighting acclimation and he shivers.

Dominic's speaking so low in his ear that Billy shouldn't even be able to hear him, but he thinks he could hear Dominic's voice anywhere, salubrious, a benediction. Dominic's body is a calefacient to drive away any cold, feeding off of the energy of the crowd.

Together, they plot escape.


End file.
